On rallying
If we go back 25 years, 1990, with Toyota, what are your highlight memories of that first world championship win?
Of course, it’s always very special. Especially at that time. Time is passing very quickly. You probably don’t realise so much. I was in the car every day. If I was not testing and I was training. With Ove Andersson, we had a very good relationship. Unfortunately, he’s not here anymore. But he had a lot of faith in myself and we both together built up a very strong team and enjoyed very successful years.
Your son has had a career in single-seaters, he’s in Formula 1, but what made you go for rallying rather than circuit racing?
Basically, first of all, in Spain, circuit racing, when I started, was really nothing. We had only one circuit and no single-seater championship. It was just touring cars, this Renault 5 Turbo Cup which I was doing and I was winning but at the same time I was doing rallying. I won the Renault championship and immediately I was offered to drive in a factory car in Spain for the Spanish championship and that obviously directed my career more towards rallying, which to be honest, I love. Even this year that I have been following Formula 1 in a bit more detail - I like Formula 1, I like Moto GP and all kinds of motorsport - but for me, rallying is very special and I really love it.
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Of course, in those days, it was a bit more of an adventure than it is now.
In those days, rallies were longer but I must say, in my time, I was able to do the endurance rallies like the Safari Rally but also the sprint rallies, so I have lived a little bit through the transformation of rallying but still today, rallying is a great challenge. The special stages, the speed you go through the forest with the rally car is amazing. People think rally car driving is sliding, it’s not driving in a very clean way, not technical, but this is not the case.
What was the best rally car you drove? A lot of people from your era tend to mention the Group B cars.
Group B cars were very exciting. I only lived the last period of the Group B. I drove the Renault 5 Maxi Turbo and very briefly one rally with the Ford RS 200 in the Spanish Gravel Championship. Those cars were really very special, very powerful, very difficult to drive, very challenging, and then immediately we changed to the Group A where it was a little bit less power and then the power was building back up but then they cut again the power so Group B was special, but to drive a WRC car today is also special. I worked very close together with Volkswagen to develop the Polo and it was a pleasure. We worked very hard to build a fantastic car and the speed through the corners is really nice today. The suspension has improved so much. When I compare it to the 90s, you can’t believe it.
Toyota are returning to rallying in 2017. Are you tempted?
I’m now with Peugeot. I’m happy with that. I’m also spending a lot of time here in the Formula 1 paddock supporting Carlos. I’m very happy doing the Dakar and as I said to you, for me to start the challenge with Peugeot from zero helping the factory Peugeot team to win the Dakar with a two-wheel drive, I like this. I always like to have a difficult challenge and this is a difficult one.
